Southeast Missouri State University and SoutheastHEALTH announced a five-year partnership Wednesday in which the health care organization will provide orthopedic and sports medicine services for the university's NCAA Division I athletics program as well as its intermural and club sports participants and the school's performing arts students.

"This partnership will create what we believe will be the premier sports medicine program in the Ohio Valley Conference and one that certainly rivals any athlete program of our size," said university athletic director Brady Barke at a news conference Wednesday afternoon on the university campus. Southeast president Carlos Vargas said the partnership was the result of a request for proposals the university issued earlier this summer. "This is a wonderful opportunity for our two organizations to come together to provide students with wholistic, comprehensive and first-rate medical services here on our campus beginning with the 2019-2020 academic year."

SoutheastHEALTH president and CEO Ken Batemen added that the partnership "allows us to meet the needs of our community and is another example of how collaboration makes both participants even stronger."

Barke said that under the agreement, Southeast HEALTH will provide same-day services for university students whenever possible, with providers available around the clock to communicate with Southeast's athletic training staff and develop a plan to help track care and students' return to sports or their performing arts roles.

Under the agreement, SoutheastHEALTH will also provide:

• Game-day coverage for Southeast's NCAA Division I athletic programs, including an emergency department physician to manage cardiac emergencies;
• Six full-time certified athletic trainers on staff with one assigned to each athletic program;
• One full-time certified athletic trainer assigned to work with the university's performing arts and intramural and club sports participants;
• Two physical therapists assigned to the school's athletics department, one physical therapist dedicated to the performing arts, and a concussion therapist to treat students with concussions;
• Weekly on-campus clinic availability by both primary care and orthopedic physicians for student-athletes and performing arts students in the university's athletic training facility;
• Equipment, including portable X-ray and ultrasound technology, to be placed in the athletic training facility;
• Preparticipation student physicals, including EKG screenings; and
• Monthly on-campus drug testing for student-athletes.

As part of the agreement, SoutheastHEALTH orthopedic physicians Dr. Anthony McPherron, Dr. Matthew Baker and Dr. Charity Jacobs and SoutheastHEALTH sports medicine physician Dr. Andrew Lawrence will take on new roles this fall as team physicians at the university's NCAA competitions.

The agreement also calls for SoutheastHEALTH to provide three scholarships that will be awarded to students in the university's athletic training program.

"The majority of the services that are being provided to us on campus, as well as equipment and supplies, are being provided by SoutheastHEALTH at no charge," Barke said. "From a staffing standpoint, the provision of the athletic trainers to the university are being done through a lease agreement as part of the contract."

Barke said virtually every student-athlete will benefit from the program. "It's very rare that we ever have any student-athletes who go through their season without some type of injury that requires evaluation, whether that be simply by the athletic trainers with some rehab or whether it is imaging or even surgery. And from the River Campus standpoint, I know they had multiple students in the past year that actually required surgery as a result of injuries they suffered while they were performing or rehearsing."

In addition to student-athletes and performing arts students, last year more than 4,600 students participated in intramural sports or one of 19 club sports on campus.